


and now his watch is ended

by remy (iamremy)



Series: askbox prompts (multifandom) [1]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, Episode: s08e03 The Long Night, Ficlet, Gen, Horror, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 16:36:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20709170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamremy/pseuds/remy
Summary: szamanita asked:Prompt? if you still take them? Jon sees wight!edd on the battlefield :(





	and now his watch is ended

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Louhetar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louhetar/gifts).

> i wrote like a ton of got/asoiaf shorts on tumblr in response to prompts and i'm putting them up here as well. for this one, you can all blame sza :D it HURT to write.

Jon sees the long face and chin-length hair first and thinks to himself, _he’s all right, Edd’s all right, he’s survived so far_–

And then he registers the ice-blue eyes.

No. No no no no no–

The expression on not-Edd’s face is something unlike anything Jon could have thought him capable of. It’s all twisted and _wrong_, like there’s nothing behind it, no soul, no mind, _nothing_, nothing but single-minded bloodlust and hatred, so out of place and ugly on Edd’s face. There’s not even the slightest hint of the humor and kindness and loyalty that Jon knows him capable of. It’s like none of that ever existed.

Jon’s so mired in his own shock and horror that he almost doesn’t dodge the thrust of not-Edd’s sword. As it is, the blade misses him by a hair’s width, and as Jon moves to the side, the rush of the battle comes screaming back, and with it, the pounding in his chest.

_Just another wight_, he tries to tell himself. _It’s just another wight you’ve got to kill_…

But it’s not. It’s Edd. His friend, his sworn brother Edd, whom he trusted enough to pass his command to. Edd, who could make any situation better just by being there to share exasperated looks with Jon and make deadpan comments that never failed to amuse Jon. Edd, who after Jon and Sam was the last of the Watch.

Not-Edd slashes at him again; Jon tastes bile in the back of his throat as he blocks with his sword. The battle was easier to fight when all the undead were faceless beings, half-rotten corpses and animated skeletons that Jon could pretend had never once been people. It had been easier when there was no one he could have known, no one he could recognize at all. Seeing Edd like this makes it _realer_, makes Jon face the ugly truth that any of them can die tonight, and rise as a wight. _Any_ of them – his sisters, his brother if they get to him, Sam, Theon, Brienne – literally anybody–

Not-Edd comes at him again, and on instinct Jon moves aside swiftly and thrusts his sword into not-Edd’s belly. For one horrible, _horrible_ moment it looks like Edd as he was in life, Jon’s friend and sworn brother, impaled at the end of his sword and looking at him with a disturbingly human expression, looking almost _betrayed_. He’d barricaded himself in a room with Jon’s body to protect it from Thorne, remembers Jon. He’d stayed with him and stood for him even though there had been no point to it.

Now here he is, hanging off the end of Jon’s sword.

The moment passes; Edd’s body crumples like a puppet with cut strings and he slides off the sword, hitting the ground with a sickening sound that has Jon vomiting in his mouth before he can control it. Jon wants to reach down, drag his body somewhere safe, make sure Edd suffers no further indignity– but then he is surrounded, overwhelmed by the tangle of bodies in the battle around him, both living and otherwise, and Edd’s body vanishes under the sea of humanity.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are greatly appreciated! thank you!
> 
> love,  
remy


End file.
